POTTSTOWN — There was no shortage of generous donations toward paying police overtime costs for the Halloween Parade Friday, and it included another generous $1,000 contribution, this time from the local Masons lodge.

Matching their friends over at The German Club, who also gave $1,000, the members of Stichter Lodge No. 254 F.A.&M., ponied up $1,000.

It’s the first time the lodge has donated, said member Dave Hollenbach, “but when we read about how the parade might not go on, we went to the chairman of our charity committee and asked how much we had available and the consensus was yes, let’s give $1,000.”

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“Then, when we saw the nice article about the German Club, we figured we better get over to The Mercury right away and make our donation,” Hollenbach said with a laugh.

It’s funny what a spirit of friendly competition can accomplish.

And accomplish Pottstown did.

AMBUCS member Aram Ecker brought in an envelope that included $545 from eight donors, including himself, and then stopped by Friday evening with another $200 in cash brought to him by Adam Sager.

“I’ve been doing this all day, I’ve got to get some plumbing done,” he joked.

Another donation stuck out as well.

Earl W. Davis walked into The Mercury offices Friday and said “how much more does the parade need?”

He had his checkbook out.

Davis and his wife Margie are the people behind Pottstown’s Wheel to the Future, the game being used to encourage people to shop in downtown Pottstown.

And he said when he read about the need to raise funds for the Halloween Parade, he immediately wanted to help.

Born to a single mother in 1926, when such circumstances were neither commonly seen nor easy to get out from under, Davis said he lived for a time in an apartment on High Street, across from the Red Arrow garage, as well as Amityville and in Phoenixville, where he managed the Tri-Boro Bowling Alley.

But after a time “in the service,” it was in Alaska, where he moved in 1969, that Davis made a name for himself.

Davis became involved in athletics, opened two Chevron service stations and received, along with his wife, a commendation from the state of Alaska for volunteer work with youth.

Returning to Pottstown in 1998, “my wife and I were started talking last November about how we would like to do something and it turned into Wheel of the Future.”

After some discussion, and an explanation that fundraising for 2013 is also under way, Davis wrote a check for $350.

Certainly the momentum seems to be there Pottstown, but let’s look ahead to 2013.

That’s when the organizers will need to come up with more than $7,000: the $5,000-plus for police overtime and the $2,000 it costs to put on the actual parade.

Make your checks out to: “Pottstown Rotary Club Endowment Fund,” and drop them off at The Mercury offices, or mail them in to Halloween Parade Donation, c/o The Mercury, 24 N. Hanover St., Pottstown, PA 19464.

Here is a list of the people and businesses that stepped up on Friday: